Mt. Blue football coach Gary Parlin has been a staunch advocate of moving his Cougars down a class for many years.

He is about to get his wish.

Mt. Blue, one of the mainstays of the Pine Tree Conference Class A, has decided to become part of an expanded PTC Class B starting with the 2011 season.

The PTC will grow from 10 to 14 teams next fall. Along with Mt. Blue, Brewer will move down from PTC A. Old Town will return to Class B after petitioning down to Class C the last three years. Two merged programs, Madison-Carrabec, which is moving over from Western Class C, and Oceanside, the new school formed by the merger of Georges Valley and Rockland, will also move up due to increased enrollment. Winslow is dropping down to Class C East due to declining enrollment.

The league will be split into two seven-team divisions, which the member schools are expected to approve at a conference meeting next month. In the South, Mt. Blue will join two-time defending PTC champion Leavitt, Gardiner, Madison-Carrabec, Morse, Oceanside and Waterville. The North will consist of Belfast, Brewer, Camden Hills, Hampden Academy, Mount Desert Island, Nokomis and Old Town.

Parlin said Mt. Blue’s players and fans should feel at home in their new league.

“That’s some of the teams that we’ve played in the past, the Gardiners, the Watervilles. The last couple of years we’ve scrimmaged Leavitt, and a lot of our kids have played youth football Gardiner and (defending Class B champion) Mountain Valley and some teams like that,” said Parlin, whose team finished 7-3 and reached the PTC A semifinals last year.

“We know it’s good competition. We feel now we’re on a level playing field to have a chance to win a state championship.”

Parlin has been one of the leading advocates for a fourth class in high school football. The Maine Principals’ Association explored the idea this winter but has put it on hold for at least two years.

Parlin’s stand hasn’t been popular with some in the Farmington area. He jokes that his son, Cole, a 2001 Fitzpatrick Trophy finalist, has threatened to start a petition to have the head coach fired if Mt. Blue ever moved down.

But the disparity in enrollment between the Cougars and their biggest competitors had become too great for the Cougars to have a shot at being a consistent factor in the conference, he said.

“As of a couple of weeks ago, we were at 731 students,” said Parlin, who won a PTC championship in 2005. “That’s hard to compete with the Bangors and the Lewistons and the Brunswicks on a week in, week out basis. We feel this is where we belong. We’re excited. It’s going to be a tough league and we’re looking forward to playing in it.”

The proposed schedule, which will also be voted on next month, will consist of an eight-game regular season, with six games against division rivals and two crossover games against the other division. The league will keep its eight-team playoff format.

Leavitt coach Mike Hathaway said “having more than 10 teams legitimizes having the eight teams in the playoffs a little bit more,” and adding teams such as Mt. Blue raises the overall talent level in the conference.

“I’m excited to have those new programs,” he said. “The thing I’m probably most excited about is we’re adding some great coaches into the mix. Certainly Gary’s a great coach. Matt Friedman is a good young coach at Madison. Woody Moore is a good young coach at Rockland and (Steve) Calande has done some good things at Old Town. I think bringing those guys in is going to be good for our league.”

“It kind of changes the league a little bit, but at the same time, we’re still playing Waterville, we’re still playing Gardiner,” he added. “We’re still going to have Morse in our league, so a lot of the rivalries that we’ve built over the last couple of years are still there.”

Not only will Mt. Blue be playing in a new league next fall, it will have a new, albeit temporary, home for its games. With renovations ongoing at the high school, the Cougars will move their home games about two miles away to Kemp Field, currently the site of Grade 4-8 youth football leagues.

Parlin said volunteers led by youth football coach Kevin Vining have moved the lights, scoreboard and other amenities from Caldwell Field to Kemp Field, where the Cougars will play for at least the next two years until the project, which will include a new football field, bleachers and press box, is completed.

“Kemp Field is going to be a nice place to play,” Parlin said. “They’ve done so much work over there anyway. At the end of last year, that surface was the best grass surface I saw. They just take immaculate care of it.”

The Cougars will practice at Wilton Academy, Parlin said.

Proposed PTC Class B divisions

North

Belfast

Brewer

Camden Hills

Hampden Academy

MDI

Nokomis

Old Town

South

Gardiner

Leavitt

Madison-Carrabec

Morse

Mt. Blue

Oceanside*

Waterville

*merger of Georges Valley and Rockland